Saturday, September 12, 2009

went to the garden party..

This is the gorgeous Juliet Love (left) with landscape designer Charlie Albone. They have a new show on Foxtel's Lifestyle Channel called the PartyGarden.

It's a six part series but after viewing one episode at the launch party in a magnificent understated Rose Bay garden, we reckon the show will be a hit with a repeat series.

Charlie & Juliet seek out a rather sad looking gardens-renovate them and make them perfect for a party. Whether for kids, grown-ups or whatever.

For the uninitiated Juliet is the 6 ft stunning daughter of racing identity and popular PR consultant AngelaBelle McSweeny and the football supremo Colin Love.

Charlie's a pretty good sort himself originally from the UK who lives with a bunch of pals at Manly who are constantly amazed at Charlie's ability to grow brussel sprouts in their tiny back garden. God only know's why anyone would want to grow such an odd vegetable but some people reckon Charlie's sprouts are as good as they come.

Under the open-air marquee dotted with white leather pouffes , leopard print cushions and tall candelabras intertwined with vines- all designed by Juliet, we discovered something every parent should get their kids onto. Amongst various shrubs and sets of blooming flowers were little rows of lettuces, carrot plants and so on. The owner of the house assures us her children have taken to growing veggies with a vengence and are ever so excited to see a plant mature, rushing home from music lessons or schools to check on the progress. A nation of young gardeners. What a cute idea.

The Party Garden airs on Fridays at at 7pm-give it a squiz-it's good fun.

Also at the Party Garden launch was Sun Herald columnist and "theMorning Show" show-biz host Shelley Horton (right). Shelley lives next door to the house where the launch party was held and reckons she's always wanted to take a peek inside the pretty amazing house. Shelly's off to the Toronto Film Festival (one of the best) this Saturday where she will be checking out the amazing 17 Australian entries in the film quest. 17?..that's an awful lot of government grants-about the only way to get a flick up in Australia but good on them anyway.

## in the rapidly changing world of newspapers and the internet comes very pleasing news from Fairfax Newspapers, Shelly's employer-the re-emergence of the legendary The National Times which will be published on-line from Monday 14th. Read about it in this piece by the excellent writer David Marr.